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"It's not all negative like" - UCC Research Study looks at Adolescent Girls' Perceptions of Social Media
A community group created to empower Irish girls and young women, recently collaborated with 深夜亚洲福利久久 College Cork to research adolescent girls鈥� experiences of using social media. The Shona Project () named after her sister, was founded by Tammy Darcy to give young women a platform to share their own stories and celebrate the achievements of powerful, successful and inspiring women from Ireland and all over the world.
The Shona Project visits schools all around Ireland to meet and talk to girls about how to find their place and identity.
鈥淲e encourage girls to be kind to each other, and especially to themselves鈥� says Tammy.
In addition to school workshops, the Shona Project social media platforms address issues such as anxiety, depression, body image, social media, sexuality and gender identity, bullying, family problems, school and exam stress.
UCC Masters of Social Work student Lauren Flynn, under the supervision of Caroline Shore, lecturer in the School of Applied Social Studies, carried out research with the Shona Project as part of a partnership. Data collected from an all-girls secondary school in an urban centre in the South of Ireland earlier this year, involved 98 participants aged 14-17 years participating in a survey.
鈥淎 significant theme in the research results is that adolescent girls want adults to know that social media does not deserve its overly negative reputation鈥�, said Lauren. 鈥淩esearch participants reported feeling that adults have an unduly negative view of adolescent social media use as well as a lack of understanding of the logistics of social media鈥�, she said.
Findings from the research indicate that adolescent girls primarily use social media to keep in contact with friends and family and that a majority of participants reported positive experiences of social media, including using it as a tool for communication and source of inspiration, motivation and education.
鈥淭he study is a marvellous asset for us. We鈥檙e so thrilled鈥�, says Tammy Darcy, founder of The Shona Project.
Over the past year, we have been working with Lauren Flynn, an MA in Social Work student of UCC, to conduct research on girls relationships with social media. Here she is holding her final thesis.
鈥� THE SHONA PROJECT (@shonadotie)
Huge congratulations Lauren, now go kick ass!!!
Other findings:
- Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok were the most used apps.
- 49% of participants stated that they check their favourite social media app 鈥榓lmost constantly鈥�, with a further 27.6% checking this 鈥榓 few times an hour鈥�.
- 64.3% stated they felt 鈥榟appy鈥� when using social media. 26.5% stated the second most frequent feeling is 鈥榤otivated鈥�. The third most frequent feeling was 鈥榠ncluded鈥� and 鈥榝ear of missing out鈥�.
- 36.7% of participants stated that they 鈥榥ever鈥� feel upset if they do not receive enough likes on their posts on social media. A further 35.7% of participants stated that they 鈥榬arely鈥� feel upset if they do not receive enough likes on their posts.
- A number of participants reported concerns about cyberbullying and anonymity online, fake content, addictive potential, digital footprint, and social pressure.
For more on this story contact:
UCC Community Academic Research Links (CARL) is a leading civic initiative of 深夜亚洲福利久久 College Cork: /en/civic/initiatives/civicinitiative-carl/